Today's News

Health officials are working to identify all the individuals in Brunswick County who qualify for the first dose of H1N1 flu vaccine, which the county is expected to receive from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention this week.

Deputy health director Fred Michael expects the county will receive about 9,000 shots. But with about 17,000-18,000 people or more already identified within the H1N1 vaccine priority groups, Michael said the health department would have to determine who is a priority within the priority groups.

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of stories focused on healthcare reform and other issues before Congress.

As a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., will cast several votes on healthcare reform before the final version of a bill ends up on President Barack Obama’s desk.

It began when county commissioner Charles Warren suggested county commissioners freeze funding to the Brunswick County Board of Education until they “get their acts together.”

Now, liaisons from the board of education, chairwoman Shirley Babson and Bud Thorsen, are set to meet with commissioners’ liaisons, chairman Bill Sue and Scott Phillips. The meeting is set for 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the Brunswick County Board of Education Central Office in Bolivia.

Former Brunswick County Sheriff Ronald Hewett went from living in a gated estate off Holden Beach Road to a jail cell at Butner Federal Correction Facility when he reported to federal prison last November.

Soon, Hewett could assume a new address—at community corrections setting, more commonly known as a halfway house.

The Aggressive Criminal Enforcement (ACE) Team is a support unit, whose primary functions are traffic enforcement and assisting in the apprehension of drug traffickers in the county. The ACE team conducts driving while impaired and driver’s license checkpoints, as well as street-level investigations on controlled substances.

The ACE team works with the sheriff’s office K-9 Enforcement Team and Drug Enforcement Unit to apprehend narcotics suspects as well as saturating hot spots where criminal activity is reported.

CALABASH—A woman faces multiple charges after a newspaper box and mailboxes were knocked down by a vehicle Tuesday in Calabash.

Donna June White-Hetland, 54, who gave a North Myrtle Beach, S.C., address, will be charged after the morning incidents at a local convenience store and along Thomasboro Road, state trooper J.L. Reeves said.

Charges are pending after a Brunswick Beacon newspaper box was damaged by a vehicle with North Carolina tags around 9:30 a.m. at the Minute Man store at the corner of Beach Drive and Old Georgetown Road.

Two days after beating South Brunswick for a share of first in the Waccamaw Conference, the West Brunswick volleyball beat North Brunswick 25-13, 25-5, 25-11.

Kenzie McDuffie served West (7-1, 15-1 overall) to a 6-0 lead in the first game. North, with seven players on the roster, rallied to cut the lead to 14-8. Allison Burton hit a winner and an ace in a 3-0 run that cut the lead to 14-11. West got a sideout when McDuffie set Keri Nolan for a hit. Two winners by Nolan put West ahead 17-11.